Reading older posts on this subject makes it sound so'oo easy, a 45 min job, ha! I seem to be having some difficulty.
The belt doesn't just slip over both gears. It's very tight! Do you need to rotate the engine while stretching the belt on? I had a fair bit of trouble removing the belts, so much so in-fact, that they got damaged when being removed. Just to state the obvious, both idler and tension bearings have been removed.
Cheers

Thanks for the reply. I am trying, to no avail, to insert a picture of my timing gears. They have a washer on them which is the same size as the gear, which prevents the belt from smoothly pushing into place. Arr

How do I insert a picture to show you what I mean?
Cheers

First, you'll need a host to link to the pictures. http://www.photobucket.com has free picture hosting. Sign up for a free account and then follow the rest of the instructions.

The pictures you send must be on your computer.

Log into your photobucket.com account.

Where it says " Add Pictures " , click on multiple pictures ( click on how ever many you'll be adding ) and then click " browse".

You'll need to go where you saved your pictures, usually " MY PICTURES "

( I use Kodak software, so I click on "Kodak Pictures" inside of "my pictures")

Click on the picture ( single pic ) that you want to add.

Repeat as many times as necessary.

Hit " submit ".

It will let you know when the pictures are successfully downloaded.

Then go under the picture and "copy" the [img]picture%20description%20in%20here[/img] address.

That is what you copy into the thread post.

When I change the belts, I borrow the correct tool to remove the pulley net from my local bike mechanic. You also have to make sure the woodruff key that locates the pulley doesn't slip out of position when fitting the pulley. Make sure you do it with plenty of light. I normally get the mechanic to replace the belts and check the valve clearances at the same time.

When I fisrt got my Paso about 11 years ago I changed the belts without the special tool and vowed never to do it again. I still don't know how I did it, but I know there was a lot of bad things I said about Ducati engineers that day

I've changed a lot of timing belts in my like as a car mechanic (one or two lives ago :laugh: ) You need strong nails in your fingers to pull off belts from their seat! Otherwise, belts could never be able to stay there while an engine is running at 9500 rpms!
To make the work easier, you can take the fixed bearing away and loose the tension bearing at all.
Another tip: If the fixed bearing is the "old solution" (a pair of std bearings), it might be the right time to switc to a "recent solution",
the special bearing installed on the newer desmodue starting from earlier pasos

Sorry guys just checking out my new found photo input skills, thanks to h1a.
Cheers